Carisa Lee

Re­porter

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

With just two weeks re­main­ing be­fore the new aca­d­e­m­ic year be­gins on Sep­tem­ber 8, the Op­po­si­tion is ques­tion­ing the Gov­ern­ment over what it calls a de­lay in dis­burs­ing the promised School Sup­plies and Book Grant.

How­ev­er, the Gov­ern­ment is as­sur­ing par­ents will re­ceive the grants well be­fore the new school year gets go­ing.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, for­mer ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly said as the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for St Ann’s East, she has re­ceived many queries about the book grants and even lap­tops. She point­ed to sev­er­al ap­peals on so­cial me­dia but said there had been no re­sponse from the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry.

“As an MP, I add my voice to those ask­ing for the min­is­ter to im­me­di­ate­ly is­sue up­dates re­gard­ing the book grants pay­ments as well as the lap­tops,” she said.

The for­mer min­is­ter said rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the peo­ple must be ac­ces­si­ble, ac­count­able and avail­able.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, at a news con­fer­ence at her Charles Street, Port-of-Spain of­fice yes­ter­day, al­so echoed Gads­by-Dol­ly’s con­cerns. She called on Gov­ern­ment to dis­trib­ute the book grants prompt­ly.

“The Gov­ern­ment gave an ad­di­tion­al week, so maybe that’s the rea­son why, so they can put their house in or­der,” she as­sumed.

But hours af­ter the con­cerns were raised by the Op­po­si­tion, the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry is­sued a press re­lease ad­vis­ing ap­pli­cants for the grant to reg­u­lar­ly check their emails for no­ti­fi­ca­tions re­gard­ing pay­ment con­fir­ma­tions for cheque col­lec­tion.

The re­lease stat­ed that 5,248 pay­ments have been made to date, with 14,752 pay­ments still out­stand­ing. The min­istry as­sured all pay­ments will be made by Sep­tem­ber 5, days for the open­ing of the new school year on Sep­tem­ber 8.

The Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry said school sup­plies and book grant pay­ments were be­ing for­ward­ed to the bank ac­count num­bers pro­vid­ed, and from to­mor­row, cheque col­lec­tion will be avail­able at Ed­u­ca­tion Dis­trict Of­fices na­tion­wide be­tween 9 am and 3 pm.

The School Sup­plies and Book Grant was first in­tro­duced in Trinidad and To­ba­go as part of the 2024 bud­get state­ment by then fi­nance min­is­ter Colm Im­bert. The ini­tia­tive, which pro­vides a $1,000 grant to fi­nan­cial­ly dis­ad­van­taged pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school stu­dents, was of­fi­cial­ly launched in 2024. The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion be­gan dis­trib­ut­ing the first phase of the grant in Au­gust that year.

Mean­while, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­mind­ed cit­i­zens that the grant is in­tend­ed for mem­bers of so­ci­ety who are re­ceiv­ing pub­lic as­sis­tance, are un­em­ployed, have dis­abil­i­ties, or be­long to low-in­come house­holds.

“By eas­ing the fi­nan­cial bur­den on fam­i­lies, the School Sup­plies and Book Grant equips stu­dents with the tools they need to learn, grow and achieve their very best,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar told Guardian Me­dia.